FCC commercial exam · Element 3

General Radiotelephone (GROL) study guide

The General Radiotelephone Operator License: electronics and radio theory for people who install, maintain or repair radio equipment.

$29PDF · 236 pages Buy the PDF

You pay through Stripe. Your download link appears on the next page and arrives by email.

In the PDF

What you get

All 579 questions in the pool, each with its answer.
A short study note at the start of each topic.
Acronyms spelled out. Where I changed a question's wording to do that, it's in italics.
17 sections. The contents page shows each one's question count and reading time.

The exam

Questions asked: 100
To pass: 75 right (75%)
You can miss: 25
Questions in the pool: 579
Pool per question asked: about 6 to 1

Contents

What's covered

Section	Topic	In the pool	Reading
3A	Electrical Fundamentals	48	~11 min
3B	Electrical Calculations & Circuits	57	~14 min
3C	Semiconductor Devices & Circuits	56	~13 min
3D	Resonant Circuits & Filters	18	~4 min
3E	Digital Logic & Microprocessors	45	~10 min
3F	Receivers & Oscillators	57	~13 min
3G	Transmitters & Amplifiers	36	~8 min
3H	Modulation & Multiplexing	16	~5 min
3I	Power Supplies & Motors	18	~5 min
3J	Transmission Lines & Antennas	30	~8 min
3K	Aviation Navigation Equipment	36	~12 min
3L	Test Equipment & Maintenance	48	~12 min
3M	Digital Communications & SDR	18	~5 min
3N	Marine Radio Operations	30	~7 min
3O	Radar Systems	30	~7 min
3P	Satellite Communications	24	~6 min
3Q	RF Safety & Lightning Protection	12	~3 min

Planning

How long it takes

Reading the whole guide once is about 2.4 hours. Working the questions takes longer. Packed into days without splitting a section:

Per day	Days to read once
30 minutes	6
60 minutes	3
90 minutes	2

Day by day at 60 minutes

Day 1 · 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3E (52 min)
Day 2 · 3F, 3G, 3H, 3I, 3J, 3K (51 min)
Day 3 · 3L, 3M, 3N, 3O, 3P, 3Q (40 min)

Questions

Before you buy

Which exam is this for?

This is for an FCC commercial radio exam, not a ham exam. The ham guides (Technician, General, Extra) are on the amateur shelf.

How do I get it after I pay?

You pay through Stripe. When the payment goes through you land on a page with a download button, and I email you the same link. The link keeps working, so you can download the PDF again later.

Is the guide enough on its own?

It has the whole pool with notes. Before the exam, work through all the questions with the answers covered, and go back over the ones you miss.

Can I print it?

Yes. It's laid out for letter-size paper, with page numbers.

Found a mistake, or the link doesn't work?

Email guides@w9ay.com and I'll sort it out.